


we're hoping that we'll make it

by anditstotallyawesome



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), M/M, Pining Lance (Voltron), Season/Series 06, shiro and lance finally are able to BOND!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 00:38:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15569901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anditstotallyawesome/pseuds/anditstotallyawesome
Summary: Lance forms a connection with the Black Lion while clone Shiro is in the Castle. He's able to communicate with the real Shiro, who's chilling in the astral plane in Black. They're finally able to bond and Shiro gives Lance advice about his feelings. Lance is also able to learn a bit more about Shiro's personal life.Takes place in an alternative Season 6, or at least before it's revealed Shiro is a clone.





	we're hoping that we'll make it

**Author's Note:**

> hello!!! so this is the first fic i've written in Years. this actually is a scene from a whole s6 rewrite fic i'm making, but tbh idk if i'll ever finish it and i really liked this scene from it. in that story, lance forms a connection with black and is able to talk to shiro. there, they try to figure out ways to take down the clone. but this is a scene where shiro gives lance some good ol' life advice instead lol.
> 
> adashi has basically made my life 100x better, and then they were talking about how shiro is a complete disaster in relationships? that fit So Well with a scene i had already written about shiro in this that i just Had to publish this before s7 airs lmao
> 
> i hope you guys enjoy!!!
> 
> (title is from Far Beyond - Dexter French, which is the song in the s7 trailer)

Lance made his way to the Black Lion after talking to the mice. He didn’t really know why he thought it would be a good idea to talk to Shiro about how they were going to deal with his clone while he was feeling pretty shitty, but here he was, going there anyways!

He sat down in the pilot’s seat and was immediately transported into the astral plane once his hands touched the controls. He looks at the stars seeming to span infinitely out everywhere. Some stars are brighter than others, some are colorful, and there’s a particular pair of a blue and red star that catches his eye longer than the rest.

Shiro begins to materialize in front of him before he can think to deeply about it, though. He appears with a smile on his face, but it immediately turns into a frown upon seeing Lance’s face.

“Hey, Lance, what’s wrong? Did Kuron say something to you?” he immediately questions.

“No, nothing like that,” Lance mumbles. “In retrospect, it’s kinda dumb. Like, of all the things we’re dealing with, my _feelings_ have to get in the way.”

Shiro tilts his head to the side. “What do you mean?”

Lance shrugs. “I dunno. I mean, I was just talking to the mice about how I-“

“Wait, hold on,” Shiro interrupts. “You were talking to the _mice_? And not one of your friends?”

Lance shrugs again, but more sheepishly. “I didn’t wanna bother them with my nonsense. It’s not really that important, anyways.”

Suddenly there are two reclining beach chairs just floating (?) on the ground (?) of the astral plane. He doesn’t know how or why or if he’ll somehow fall down if he tries to sit in it. He looks over to Shiro questioningly, only to find him already lounging in one of the chairs. Shiro gestures to the other one with a wide smile on his face.

“What?” he asks innocently, but with a shit-eating grin. “I’m stuck in here with nothing to do. Sometimes I catch glimpses of what’s going on out there but most of the time it’s just me and the stars. This is honestly the most chill I’ve been in years. Sometimes I even get those little umbrella drinks, but I don’t think I can actually drink anything from it, not physically.”

And that’s honestly… pretty sad. Lance chuckles at his joke, though, and sits down in the chair next to Shiro.

“So…” Shiro starts, “what’s up?”

Lance stares at Shiro for a tick because, honestly? This moment is so damn surreal and he’s been to the astral plane a couple times now already. They’re sitting on fucking beach chairs in the astral plane! With Shiro’s consciousness only because the Shiro in the physical realm is a clone!

Sorry, he knows he keeps repeating this a lot but, like, it’s very hard to wrap his head around. He’s pretty sure this would still baffle any sane person.

Anyways, Lance looks away and sighs, slouching back into the chair. “I don’t know,” he whines dramatically. “I know I’m supposed to be the team’s lover-boy, or whatever, but sometimes I have no idea what my heart wants! I can flirt with anyone, no problem, but when it comes to real feelings, it gets weird. It’s like I’m being pulled into two different directions and it’s _confusing_! And I… I think I know how I feel but I don’t… want to admit to myself that I feel a certain way, even though I _am_ confident in myself and my identity, sometimes… certain feelings… scare me still…” Lance takes a deep breath and risks a glance at Shiro, who has a patient look on his face.

“You want to elaborate a bit?” Shiro asks. His tone is teasing, but it’s obvious on his face that he wants to listen to Lance and help him. His patience and kindness is so different from the clone back in the Castle. It’s very refreshing. This is the leader he’s missed ever since he disappeared so long ago. He was kind, caring, and willing to listen and offer output. Lance feels very lucky to be able to have this moment with Shiro.

Lance fidgets a bit and musters up the courage to look Shiro in the eye. “I’ve wanted to be with Allura since the day I set eyes on her. She’s gorgeous, smart, nice, badass, and a great leader… she’s amazing in every way! But I just… I think my, my feelings have changed…” he looks back down at this fingers, “and I don’t know why. Well, I do, I think, but I didn’t _want_ it to happen this way.”

“Sometimes what we want isn’t always what we need,” Shiro says softly and Lance’s head snaps back up in surprise. “And sometimes what we need has been in front of us the entire time and we don’t realize it.”

A few ticks pass before Lance blinks and his eyebrows return to their normal spot on his face. “I… I guess…” he looks back down again, fidgeting.

Shiro takes a long moment to look at Lance. “Have I ever told you how Adam and I met?”

Lance looks back at him, confusion written on his face. “Who’s Adam?”

“My fiancé.”

A beat of silence.

“WHAT??” Lance shrieks, a whole octave higher than his normal voice. It seems to echo around them. “You have a _fiancé_?”

“Well,” Shiro backtracks, “technically ex-fiancé, since we kinda broke up before Kerberos and-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he exclaims, sitting up and putting his hand near Shiro’s face to shut him up. “No way you’re getting out of this one, dude. You know _damn well_ you’ve never mentioned Adam to us.”

Shiro idly scratches at his cheek. “Haven’t I?”

Lance laughs in disbelief. “Uh, no, I would’ve remembered that, that you, you’re-!”

“Gay?” Shiro offers with a laugh.

“YEAH!” Lance exclaims, relieved that he’s not actually just making this up, or misunderstanding, or looking too much into this. “I would’ve remembered. You’re like, my hero, dude. If I knew you were like me, then-” Lance stops in surprise, but then takes a breath and goes to explain himself. “I’m bi.”

Shiro smiles warmly at him. “Thank you for telling me, Lance.”

“I, uh,” Lance blushes and rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, th-thank you, Shiro,” he laughs nervously and lounges back into the chair. Like he said earlier, he’s confident in his identity, but saying it out loud to someone who he’s never told before, and is someone he’s looked up to his entire life, still instills nervous energy in him. “Anyways! Tell me about Adam!”

And, wow, Lance has never seen this look on Shiro’s face before. His smile is small, but so, _so_ soft and he’s looking off to the side with a far away, starry look in his eyes. There’s no visible blush on his face, but it’s obvious that he’s blushing because of the redness at the top of his ears. He must really love this Adam guy, huh?

“Adam and I were in the same classes since we started at the Garrison. We were both at the top of our classes, so we were really competitive at first, always trying to one up each other. It was pretty tied, but I can admit that Adam was way more book smart than I was. Believe it or not, I was more of your… jock or frat boy type.”

Lance snorts and points lazily at him. “You? A frat boy? Now, a jock I can believe by taking one look at you, but a frat boy? _The_ Takashi Shirogane? Black paladin and leader of Voltron? The “go, be great” and “patience yields focus” Shiro? The one who-”

Shiro holds up his hand and rolls his eyes. “Alright, alright, I get it. I’m talking about when I was around your age, okay? I’ve matured.”

“Uh-huh,” Lance nods seriously. “Whatever you say, dude.”

Shiro lays his head back on the chair and lets out a ‘He’s Got The Whole Universe On His Shoulders’ sigh. “Anyways…” he glares over at Lance. “One day we were arguing about who would do better on the simulator and he, uh, he said ‘if I get the better score, then you have to take me out on a date’ and I was so surprised that I didn’t say anything back before he was called over to go - and he did great, obviously! Then when, uh, when it was my turn… I just… immediately nose-dived the ship and crashed it.”

Lance bursts out laughing. This was the whole shebang, with tears streaming down his face, a hand holding his side, and gasping for breath. “You-?! You just-!” he dissolves into more laughter. Shiro looks on, trying not to laugh, but he _knows_ how embarrassing this story was. “Holy shit?!”

Shiro finally allows himself to chuckle at the memory. “Yeah, laugh it up, Lance. I purposely bombed a simulator to go on a date with a cute boy, sue me.”

That puts Lance through another fit of laughter, but he’s trying to catch his breath. “Oh my god,” he wipes at his eyes. “Dude, this entire time I’ve been thinking you were a distinguished gay, but you’re actually a disaster gay? Jesus-” he cuts himself off with more giggling. 

“First of all,” Shiro holds up a finger, trying to defend himself. “I _used_ to be a chaotic disaster gay. Clearly, I’m now a distinguished gay.” He moves and flattens out his hand under his chin to frame his face. 

“Uh, I didn’t hear you say you weren’t chaotic anymore?” Lance says through his laughter.

Shiro just shrugs, making a ‘meh’ motion with his hand. “Debatable.”

Lance hums at his answer. “You have to tell the others this story, man. They’ll have a kick out of it. Plus… I think they’d like to know more personal stuff like this about you.”

Shiro sighs and looks up. “Yeah, I think I will once this mess is over,” he looks back over to Lance. “Anyways, my point was that sometimes you don’t realize what you needed all along has always been there. Sometimes you just need a push from that person or to share a moment for it to be clear.”

“So, you’re telling me that you didn’t like Adam before he kinda asked you out?”

Shiro scoffs. “God, no, I thought he was the cutest guy I’ve ever laid my eyes on. I just… never thought it was a possibility that he liked me back until that moment.”

And that… that hits Lance. His eyes widen as he looks away from Shiro. The beginning of Lance and Keith’s rivalry started because Lance didn’t know how to process his jealousy and… possibly other feelings. And, listen, Lance wasn’t _blind_ , not even when he was younger and just starting to question his sexuality. He knew Keith was cute, but… he just never seemed to reciprocate or even _notice_ Lance. Then Keith didn’t remember him and then Voltron happened and more bonding and teamwork and talking and… leaving.

Maybe… maybe this whole thing could be reciprocated… maybe he knew that since Keith came back recently, or when he comforted him in his bedroom and told him to leave the math to Pidge, or when Keith actually listened to him as his right hand man, or when Keith held his hand and pulled him off the floor…

“GAC for your thoughts?” Shiro says, interrupting his train of thought.

Lance quickly shakes his head. “I just, I think things make a bit more sense now. Thanks, Shiro.” He still looks down towards his hands, though, because he’s still feeling weird about his feelings.

Shiro sits up in his chair and faces Lance. “Listen… I, uh, don’t really know how you feel right now because I was the one who technically left Adam. He told me it’d be too dangerous and I could get even more sick and possibly die up here and… I wish circumstances could’ve been different, but I also know that I _had_ to go on this mission, and do the things I’m doing now,” he puts a hand on Lance’s knee and catches Lance’s eye. Lance sees a weird mix of pain and determination in his eyes.

“What I can tell you, though, is that leaving the person you love behind is _such_ an awful feeling. No matter what happens, I will always want to return to Adam and I think about him every _damn_ day, hoping I’ll be able to just… to even just see him or hear his voice one more time,” Shiro’s voice breaks and he clears his throat before continuing. “Adam means the world to me, and no matter what happens, I _will_ get back to him.”

Lance stares up at Shiro with wide eyes. There are tears welling up in Shiro’s eyes, and Lance tries to hold his own tears back, but he’s always been an empathetic crier. He thinks he knows what Shiro is getting at, but he doesn’t want to get his hopes up.

“Lance, he will return to you, no matter what.” Oh, there it was. Lance can feel the dam break. “I don’t know Keith’s entire reasoning for leaving, but I do know he would never give up on the people he cares about. Just because we spend a lot of time apart from them, it doesn’t mean we care about each other any less. We can and we _will_ get through this.”

A few tears slip down Shiro’s cheek and Lance lets out a sob. “I h-hope so, Shiro. You deserve to see Adam again and to have chill days all the time. You’ve been through so much; I hope you get to have that eventually. I hope you can have that with Adam.”

Shiro lets out a wet laugh, more tears spilling over and he sniffs, trying to cover it up. “Yeah, well, we can only hope. You deserve that, too, Lance. You guys are so young and Lance, after everything you’ve been through, you deserve to be able to settle down for a while, too. To see your family and to get back to Cuba again.”

Lance throws his arms around Shiro, who lets out a small “oof” at the impact. “Thank you. Thank you so, so much, Shiro.” Shiro hugs him back gently with his arm. “Of course, Lance.”

They stay in each other’s embrace, silently crying for a bit before Lance lets go and loudly says, “Phew, now that _that’s_ over, I want to let you know that if I’m not invited to the wedding, then I’m gonna crash it.”

Shiro chuckles. “Don’t worry, Lance, you can even be one of the groomsmen.”

For a second there it looks like Lance’s eyes sparkle. It could be either his enthusiasm or just something about the astral plane energy, or whatever. “Really?!”

“I think you deserve it, at this point,” Shiro chuckles and scratches at his cheek.

Lance sighs in relief. “Awesome. Your party’s gonna be so lit, dude.”

“Yeah, I know,” Shiro smirks at Lance. “I’ve always thrown the best parties, so…”

“ _You_ threw _parties_? At the _Garrison_? _How_?!” Lance throws his hands out and managing to put emphasis into almost every other word.

Shiro shrugs his shoulders. “I told you I was a frat dude, Lance.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Alright, I think that’s enough personal information for one day, don’t you?” Shiro cuts him off and everything around them begins to fade.

“Hey! No fair!” Lance exclaims. “When I finally meet Adam I’m gonna ask him all about your partying days!”

Everything has already mostly faded, but Shiro’s voice full of joyous mirth still manages to reach him before he’s back in the Black Lion. “Don’t even think about it, Lance.”

**Author's Note:**

> aaaaa so that's it!! i hope u liked it!!
> 
> i just really love the concept of shiro being a disaster gay and the scene about how they kinda start dating is something i'm v proud of lmao
> 
> y'all can find me on twitter @bakussquad or on tumblr @ayylmaokeith i'll be screaming about s7 when it comes out on my twitter so!! feel free to join lmao


End file.
